Gaurav Ajmera spent years scaling hospitality rooms across India. Now he's applying the same playbook to a very different kind of real estate: veterinary clinics.
Vetic, the Gurugram startup Ajmera founded after stints at OYO and Pristyn Care, has pulled in $40 million in fresh capital from its existing backers—a vote of confidence that arrives more than a year after the company closed a $26 million Series C. Bessemer Venture Partners led the internal round, joined by Greenoaks Capital, Lachy Groom, and the JSW Family Office, according to a company announcement.
It's an aggressive pace of capital deployment for a four-year-old business. But Vetic's backers appear willing to bet that India's fragmented pet care landscape—worth an estimated $3.5 billion in 2024 and climbing—can support a tech-enabled clinic chain at scale.
The company now operates more than 65 veterinary clinics spread across 11 cities, employs north of 250 veterinarians, and claims over 60,000 subscribed members. Fifteen of those facilities offer around-the-clock emergency care. Behind the scenes, Vetic has built a proprietary platform that stores pet health records, uses artificial intelligence for triage and diagnostics, and runs an integrated e-pharmacy.
Where the Money Goes
Vetic plans to pour the new funding into expansion—more clinics, more vets, and a nationwide rollout of at-home veterinary services. The company is also doubling down on insurance and wellness subscriptions, two categories that remain conspicuously underdeveloped in India's pet economy. A sector analysis published earlier this year pegged pet insurance penetration below 1 percent, despite a pet population hovering around 40 million.
The capital will also flow into AI and infrastructure. Vetic already leans on machine learning for personalized care recommendations and diagnostic support, but the technology remains early-stage—and expensive to refine.
Ajmera's background in operational scale-up is evident. As chief operating officer for OYO's India and South Asia operations, he oversaw the hotel aggregator's breakneck expansion (and the inevitable growing pains that came with it). Before launching Vetic in 2022—legally registered as Petpai Technologies Private Limited—he held a senior role at Pristyn Care, the surgical services chain that raised hundreds of millions before stumbling amid reports of patient complaints and regulatory scrutiny.
Whether those lessons translate to veterinary care remains to be seen.
The Unit Economics Problem
Vetic secured a $3.7 million seed round in November 2022, led by Lachy Groom and backed by a roster of angel investors including Ritesh Agarwal and Nitin Saluja. Bessemer came aboard during the May 2025 Series C, which valued the startup at roughly ₹960 crore—approximately $113 million post-money at the time. The company has not disclosed a valuation for this latest round.
The financials tell a familiar story for a venture-backed clinic network. Operating revenue hit ₹62.9 crore in fiscal 2025, up from ₹26.6 crore the prior year—a 2.4x jump driven largely by adding locations. Revenue split fairly evenly between services (grooming, consultations) and retail (pet food, accessories).
But losses widened to ₹65.6 crore from ₹40.2 crore as the company scaled. Employee costs reached ₹30.8 crore. Marketing spend topped ₹13.2 crore.
That's a steep burn rate, even for a growth-stage startup, and it raises the obvious question: Can Vetic reach profitability before it needs to raise again?
A Crowded Field
Vetic isn't alone in chasing India's pet economy. Supertails, a rival omnichannel player, raised a $30 million Series C earlier this year. Smaller chains like Dr. Doodley and Crown Vet are also vying for wallet share in urban markets. In September 2025, Vetic announced a partnership with Delhi-NCR's Doggy World, integrating its tech platform across four clinics including a 24/7 emergency center—a move that signals both collaboration and competitive pressure in the capital region.
The broader opportunity, according to industry projections, is substantial. Euromonitor and Redseer data suggest India's pet care market could double to somewhere between $7 billion and $7.5 billion by 2028. Much of the country still lacks veterinary access, and insurance adoption is negligible.
Vetic's thesis is that a subscription-driven model—paired with home visits, AI diagnostics, and a dense clinic footprint—can unlock latent demand as Indian households increasingly treat pets as family members. It's a thesis that has attracted serious capital.
Whether it can attract serious profits is the test ahead.
